Cleric behind bombing in Indonesian capital goes on trial

JAKARTA, Indonesia – A key ideologue for Islamic State militants in Indonesia has gone on trial for ordering a 2016 suicide bombing and gun attack in Jakarta that killed eight people including the four attackers.

The radical cleric, Oman Rohman, popularly known as Aman Abdurrahman, was guarded by counterterrorism police as he waited in a holding cell for the trial to begin Thursday.

Police have described Adburrahman as the main Indonesian translator for IS propaganda and the spiritual leader of Jemaah Anshorut Daulah, a network of almost two dozen Indonesian extremist groups that formed in 2015.

The five-judge panel appointed a lawyer for Adburrahman. He told the court Thursday that he was not appointing a lawyer to defend himself but would not object if the court imposed one.